Day: September 27, 2013

There is no movement. The boy lies completely still, the ripples of budding terror caressing his pale skin. He wasn’t expecting this right now. It’s too soon. He’s unprepared in almost every way. Huddled motionless in his bed, Erik’s mind races back to the beginning of this long, twisted road that is about to culminate in his massacre.

Cold World. His life on Cold World was simple. He had purpose, almost divine purpose at that. He had his place in the techno world and understood what his path. Erik was further along in the divestiture than many of his people. He had cut off his emotions so completely and thoroughly that he became the envy of his cohort space. He had worked harder than any other to devolve his feelings and isolate them. He was so successful that by the time he was fifteen most stones on the Absolusion Bay shore displayed more emotion than he. He often marveled at how so many people seemed to struggle cutting the last vestiges of emotion from their lives. For Erik, cutting emotional ties to life brought increased benefit and vitality.

For the people of Cold World, a life devoid of emotion meant increased clarity and freedom to pursue increasingly advanced technology. The tech machines of Cold World were the fuel of the people. Each and every Cold World denizen lived to build and develop ever more advanced technology applications. People were judged by the sophistication of their inventions and its benefit to the greater good of society. In this Erik reigned supreme.

Erik’s inventions created life sustaining innovations, new carbon free energy generation techniques, and travel methods that allowed the people of Cold World to explore the nearest solar system. Because of Erik’s genius there was no more need for war. People did not need to compete for living space or for food resources. Capitalism did not exist in Cold World and neither did crime.

Long ago, before anyone can really remember, the Elders of Cold World theorized that if people had no emotion or lived outside the confines of it, life would be better for all people. The Elders taught that war, famine, crime, greed and all kinds of avarice and depravity was precipitated by emotional outbursts and stirrings of the heart. The Elders taught that despite the good that came from being connected emotionally to other people or places, this good was far outpaced by the damage such emotions caused. And so the Elders initiated what became known as the Great Divestiture. The Great Divestiture became canon and scripture for every man, woman and child. It was drilled into the people from cradle to grave.

The Great Divestiture guided people in the daily process of living without emotion or feeling. The Great Divestiture moved the people of Cold World to cut ties with family and friends as soon as possible. Relationships were shunned and people that developed emotional ties to other people, places, or things were ostracized and subject to exhile. Over the eons, the Elders were proved right in a great many respects. Wars began to cease. Divorce rates fell and more than anything else, crime disappeared like fog on a bright desert morning. Competition between people simply ceased.

Erik learned early on how to implement the Great Divestiture in his life. He became so good at it that to those around him Erik seemed like a man born of a virgin. He just was. From age five he cut his parents off. At age eight he had no friends and was completely focused on his tech studies. He was distant and aloof. He didn’t need anyone and spent all his waking moments in his cubicle pouring over volumes of Elder knowledge and teachings. He was an emotionless prodigy and his knowledge grew rapidly. By the time he was 18, Erik had 100 inventions that replaced 55% of Cold World’s life sustaining activities. By age 25, Erik was completely divested. The majority of people on Cold World did not reach full divestiture until age 175.

For all his techno ability and knowledge, Erik was about to die. His mind was in a state of panic. He had planned so well, documented his steps, run his pilot studies, had his theories proved a multitude of times and yet here he was as death’s door. His calculations had been flawless…even elegant one might say if he still had a soul that could create beautiful things. Beauty is an emotional term however and Erik had no emotion left or so he thought. But, he was lying in bed…afraid. Terror held him like a steel vice. He could not move. He could not even scream for help.